Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33552705›Full record

ArticleClinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science2021

Losing Control: Sleep Deprivation Impairs the Suppression of Unwanted Thoughts.

Marcus O Harrington, Jennifer E Ashton, Subbulakshmi Sankarasubramanian, Michael C Anderson, Scott A Cairney

Open access · hybridAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
32citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
4.4field-weighted citation impact, top 5% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

32 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 65 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Sleep loss disrupts the neural signature of successful learning.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2023
    Trial
  3. Review
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Temporal proximity to sleep determines emotional memory interference.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2026
    Article
  7. Emotion regulation modulates subsequent control of unwanted memories.Social cognitive and affective neuroscience · 2026
    Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Sleep longer, think sharper: extra sleep offsets poor sleep quality in young-old adults.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2025
    Article
  12. Review
  13. Memory control deficits in the sleep-deprived human brain.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Marcus O HarringtonDepartment of Psychology, University of York.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6292-7595
Jennifer E AshtonDepartment of Psychology, University of York.
Subbulakshmi SankarasubramanianMedical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge.
Michael C AndersonMedical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge.
Scott A CairneyDepartment of Psychology, University of York.
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit · GBUniversity of York · GBBiomedical Research Institute · US

Funding

Medical Research Council MC_PC_16064Medical Research Council MC_UU_00005/1Medical Research Council MR/P020208/1
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Unwanted memories often enter conscious awareness when individuals confront reminders. People vary widely in their talents at suppressing such memory intrusions; however, the factors that govern suppression ability are poorly understood. We tested the hypothesis that successful memory control requires sleep. Following overnight sleep or total sleep deprivation, participants attempted to suppress intrusions of emotionally negative and neutral scenes when confronted with reminders. The sleep-deprived group experienced significantly more intrusions (unsuccessful suppressions) than the sleep group. Deficient control over intrusive thoughts had consequences: Whereas in rested participants suppression reduced behavioral and psychophysiological indices of negative affect for aversive memories, it had no such salutary effect for sleep-deprived participants. Our findings raise the possibility that sleep deprivation disrupts prefrontal control over medial temporal lobe structures that support memory and emotion. These data point to an important role of sleep disturbance in maintaining and exacerbating psychiatric conditions characterized by persistent, unwanted thoughts.

Indexed as

emotion regulationmemory controlopen dataperseverative thoughtspsychiatric disorderssleep deprivation

Identifiers

PMID33552705
PMCPMC7820573
OpenAlexW2995474347

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.